Directorship

Areg Totolian

Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (2011)

Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2014), member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2016)

Areg A.Totolian was born on 27 December 1958 in Yerevan (Armenia), and moved to Leningrad (Saint-Petersburg) in 1964.

In 1975 he entered the First Pavlov Medical Institute of Leningrad (The First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Petersburg /PSPbGMU) where he worked until 2008. He was trained and acquired his professional experience in the fields of internal diseases, pulmonology and general and clinical laboratory immunology.

In 1986 А. Totolian organized a Clinical Immunology Laboratory run by him until 2000; by authorization of the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation, organized, at the premises of the PSPbGMU, a Research Guidance Centre of the Ministry of Public Health of the Russian Federation for Molecular Medicine (headed by him until 2008).

In 1987 he passed Ph.D. defence on pulmonology and immunology; in 1997 - earned his doctorate in immunology (concerned with the development of approaches and methodology of laboratory immunological diagnosis for diseases at the base of the achievements of fundamental immunology, immunochemical and molecular technologies).

From 1993 to 1995 he received training in infectious immunology at Istituto Superiore di Sanita (Rome, Italy).

For the first time in Russia, under the supervision of A. Totolian, 12 specialized immune programs were developed and since 2002 put into practice of the Federal System for External Quality Assessment of Clinical Laboratory Tests.

Under his direction 25 PhD theses and one doctorate thesis were defended dealing with the strategy and methods of laboratory immune diagnosis; He is the author and a co-author of more than 400 research papers and 13 patents.

Since 2008, А. Totolian have been the Deputy Director for Research, the Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and Seroepidemiology (since 2016 - Laboratory of Molecular Immunology); since 2015 - the Director and interim of the Pasteur Institute in St. Petersburg.

His main research activities are combined with teaching in PSPbGMU, here since 2013, he has directed the curriculum of clinical immunology and since 2015 has headed the Department of Immunology.

A. Totolian is an independent allergologist and immunologist at the Public Health Committee of the Government of St. Petersburg, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the regional office of the Russian Association of Allergologists and Clinical Immunologists in St. Petersburg; Member of the Board of Directors of the Russian Scientific Society for Immunology and of All-Russian Scientific Society of Epidemiologists, Microbiologists and Parasitologists; member of the Board the Russian Scientific Society of Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis.

A. Totolian is Editor in Chief of the Infection and Immunity journal, deputy editor-in-chief of the Medical Immunology journal, member of the editorial boards and editorial teams of Clinical laboratory diagnostics, Journal of Microbiology, Epidemiology and Immunobiology, HIV infection and immunosupressions, Molecular Medicine, Cytokines and Inflammation, Russian Journal of Immunology journals.

A. Totolian participated in the establishment of the Department of the Russian Association of Allergologists and Clinical Immunologists in St. Petersburg, initiated and organized the annual (since 1997) All-Russia scientific forum with international participation Days of immunology in St.-Petersburg, and the annual (since 2010) All-Russian scientific school on Clinical Immunology Immunology for physicians in Pushkinskiye Gory (Pskov region).

In accordance with the decision of the Committee on Science and Higher Education of the Government of Saint Petersburg, the team led by A. Totolian was officially registered in 2013 as a scientific school in the field of Medical Immunology and Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis, and included in the Register of the Leading Scientific and Pedagogical Schools of St. Petersburg.

In 2013 А. Totolian received the gold medal from the Russian Scientific Society for Immunology for phenomenal achievements in the field of immunology.

In 2016 А. Totolian was awarded the title of Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.